Because of space confinements within certain operational environments such as an aircraft, coupling clamping assemblies for interconnecting tubular fluid conduits are often located at places that are difficult to reach, to see and to service. Thus, it is desirable to have coupling latch assemblies that include coupling latch mechanisms that can be easily manipulated with one hand to promote operational control. In addition, because of the potential operational environment where a coupling assembly may be used, it may be advantageous to have a redundancy feature to minimize inadvertent leakage of the conduit coupling joint should one coupling latch mechanism become damaged or fail to be properly latched in the installation process.
The use of a single latch draw spring is known. Moreover, clamping systems for fluid conduits are known that utilize a single latching device to pull the ends of a circular clamp together to hold the opposing ends of conduits to seal the two together. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,008,937 issued to E. Filippi on Feb. 22, 1977, discloses a split coupling assembly having a toggle clamp which latches and tensions a rod retainer to provide a clamping force. U.S. Pat. No. 4,924,913 issued to N. Pedersen on May 15, 1990, discloses a tube coupling system for joining metal tubes using a split coupler having a spring locking member. These latching devices have only one means of attaching and drawing together one end of the clamp to a second end of the clamping system thereby securing an end of a first conduit to a second conduit. Some even provide for increased security by providing an intermediate stop on the retainer latch mechanism to prevent the inadvertent or sudden complete release of the retaining band and the joined fluid conduits.
There are also examples of coupling clamping systems having redundant retention systems. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,620,210 issued to T. Eyster et al. on Apr. 15, 1997, discloses a coupling assembly having redundant locking features using a pivotal locking member and a pair of locking tines. U.S. Pat. No. 4,900,070 issued to R. Runkles et al. on Feb. 13, 1990, discloses a coupling assembly having redundant locking features using laterally spaced locking tines. U.S. Pat. No. 4,881,760 issued to Runkles et al. on Nov. 21, 1989, discloses a coupling assembly having redundant locking features using laterally spaced locking tines which includes indicia for visually confirming the latch is properly engaged.